New Bedford City Property Committee Meeting - July 1, 2026
New Bedford City Property Committee Meeting - July 1, 2026
This meeting of the City Property Committee covered the disposition of multiple city-owned properties, including a Port Authority parcel, five former municipal buildings, and two fire stations. The committee heard presentations from city officials, discussed changes to the RFP process to improve developer flexibility, and voted on recommendations.
Consent Calendar
- Items 4 through 12 were waived and taken with no further action by unanimous consent.
Discussion Items
- Item 1: Port Authority Property Sale at 276 MacArthur Drive – Blair Bailey, General Counsel for the New Bedford Port Authority, presented plans to issue an RFP for the sale of the maritime terminal property. The property currently generates $12,000 per year in rent, but the city estimates it would require $25 million in investment to extend the lease 45 more years. The Port Authority is prioritizing rebuilding Leonard's Wharf and Homer's Wharf. The property will be sold 'as-is, where-is' with the existing lease in place, and the buyer assumes all maintenance and liability. Councilors Lopes and Pereira expressed support for the process but sought assurances regarding assistance with permitting, particularly for the current tenants. The committee voted to refer the matter to no further action (motion by Councilor Pereira, second by Councilor Lopes).
- Item 2: RFPs for Five City-Owned Properties – Josh (Director of Housing and Community Development) presented revised RFPs for the former police station (170 Cove Street), the New Bedford Armory (989 Pleasant Street), and three former schools (Phillips Avenue, Horatio A. Kempton, William H. Taylor). He explained that previous RFPs were pulled due to restrictive clawback language that deterred bank lending. The new approach removes strict clawback provisions and introduces a two-step process: council approval to issue the RFP, followed by a negotiation phase for a purchase and sale agreement, with a final council vote. This allows for flexibility on timelines and financing. Councilors Lopes and Pereira raised concerns about ensuring the city retains adequate recourse to avoid prolonged legal battles (e.g., the Civil Defense building case). Pereira requested a formalized committee to evaluate proposals, including members from planning, building, and community development. Josh noted the RFPs prioritize housing, with a preference for market-rate development to speed up timelines, but the armory may require subsidies. The Taylor School RFP explicitly requires 80% market-rate units. The committee voted to authorize the release of the RFPs for items 2A through 2E (motion by Councilor Lopes, second by Councilor Gomes).
- Item 3: Proposals for Fire Station 3 and 11 – Josh presented the evaluation of proposals received after reissuing RFPs for Fire Station 3 (834 Kempton Street) and Fire Station 11 (745 Brock Avenue). A three-person review committee (Ashley Eaton, Jordan Latham, and Ann Lauro) unanimously recommended awarding Fire Station 3 to South Coast Investments and Fire Station 11 to Gavuj Development, both rated 'highly advantageous.' Competing proposals from Divine Contractors/Freedom Realty Group were rated 'advantageous' but lacked detail in budgets and timelines. The winning firms offered $50,000 per building versus $75,000 from the competitor, but the committee prioritized preparation and feasibility. Councilor Lopes requested future inclusion of the scoring matrix. The committee voted to accept the recommendations (motion by Councilor Lopes, second by Councilor Abreu).
Key Outcomes
- Item 1: Motion to refer to no further action passed unanimously.
- Item 2: Motion to authorize the release of RFPs for five properties passed unanimously.
- Item 3: Motion to award Fire Station 3 to South Coast Investments and Fire Station 11 to Gavuj Development passed unanimously.
- Items 4-12: Waived and no further action taken.
- The meeting adjourned at 7:47 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues in the public aware of the reason for my absence. Some Council Burgo. Some Council Choquett, I'm ready to inform you that I'm unable to attend tonight's committee meeting because I will be attending a ward one neighborhood meeting. Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues in the public aware of the reasons for my absence. Motion received and place on file by Council Lopes. Second by Councillor Roy. All in favor, say aye. I've it. Item number one communication, Council Giesta submitting a letter from Blair Bailey, General Counsel for the New Bedford Port Authority regarding the port authorities vote to sell the real property known and numbered as 276 MacArthur Drive, incorporating New Bedford assessors map 59, lots 170, 171, 173, and 149 and 217. It was referred here on September 25th, 2025. Second. The ayes have it. Evening. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Give us a brief overview as to what uh these lots are and what we're going to do with it. So for those of you you already know this, but the all the city property down in the waterfront is subject to the jurisdiction of the port authority. So everything is in our under our control, but there's some exceptions to that in our enabling legislation. When we want to dispose of a piece of property, we have to generally the way that as it says in my letter, the way our enabling legislation is written, I'm supposed to come to you with a done deal with an RFP, so you approve the deal. This is what we're doing. We're going to put an RFP out. And those of you that know the maritime terminal property, that is a very large building and a very large piece of property, and it makes us $12,000 a year. And isn't worth the $25 million investment for $45 more years of that lease. We're rebuilding Leonard's Wharf. We need to do Homer's Wharf next. Those are our priorities. Any purchaser of this property, so it's an open RFP. Anybody can bid, but anybody bidding has to take it subject to that lease. That is the law. They are committed to the city. They're from the North End. They have a business. They want to put a lot of money into this property. However, since at the end of the lease, they wouldn't own the building, the bank is obviously a little res reticent to loan them a substantial amount of money on that property because at the end of the day it's not theirs and it wouldn't continue to be there. So that's sort of the where they're stuck in this process. So we have to go out to bid. It's an open RFP. Anybody can bid on it. We will get the bids once we get the bids, they'll come back to the council for approval of the deal. But that's the way it works. Thank you, Blair. Hold on, my uh colleagues. Uh if you're uh wearing a hat in the chamber, can I just kindly ask you to remove it? Thank you. Uh Chair recognizes Council Lopes. Thank you, Council Chair. So, Attorney Bailey, I'm assuming the RFP will be written in a manual that will state that they'll be responsible for the maintenance up here, upkeep and repair of the facility? Correct. So the city will have no liability associated with any of the associated maintenance to deferred maintenance. No, we were selling it as is where is and they will assume the liability to do that.
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